As die-hard Maggots well know, Slipknot have been sitting on a whole album's worth of experimental material written and recorded during the sessions for 2008's All Hope Is Gone. Earlier this year, the band's Shawn "Clown" Crahan suggested that the much-mythologized 11-song collection, tentatively titled Look Outside Your Window, could finally see the light of day later in 2023, after the 'Knot's deal with their longtime label Roadrunner Records finally expires.
However, if frontman Corey Taylor had it his way, the record that he once described as having "much more of a Radiohead vibe" would remain in the vaults forever. In a new Q&A with NME, Taylor reasoned that because so much time has passed since the initial recordings, and fans have built up so much hype for it, he's not sure if it could ever live up to people's expectations.
"Look Outside Your Window is Clown's baby," Taylor said. "Slipknot is Clown's baby. I punch a clock and then I punch out. It's so funny, every year or two I get an email about Look Outside Your Window and how it's coming out. I'm just as stoked as everybody else because, dude, I don't even have a copy. I have a version from 10 years ago that I don't even think is the same mix that they're dealing with. I don't even fucking know the songs are going on this album, that's how out of the loop I am.
"I was a guest star on that album anyway, so your guess is as good as mine. It's so fascinating that something that started as a demo has become the Holy Grail. If you only knew how that album came about and the pain it caused … I hope people dig it but I honestly hope it never gets released because there are so many expectations about it now. It's like that Wu Tang Clan album that only whathisfuck [Martin Shkreli] has a copy of. It's almost better to just wonder."
Maybe so, but we still want to hear this puppy — especially after how Taylor talked up the record's sound during an interview on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation way back in 2019.
"It's experimental, but it's super vibey, super melodic," Taylor explained. "It's really good. It's hard to explain. There's something about those songs. They're very solemn, very energetic, very artistic. For people who are used to a certain way of Slipknot sounding, this doesn't sound anything like that."
"I think there's a large percentage of the fans who will actually really, really dig it," he added, explaining that one reason for the album's delayed release is that the band has been trying to figure out how they "wanted to present it to the fans." "Obviously, the people who are into the heavier stuff probably won't get it at first — they might dig it later. It's always about the right time with Clown. Once you spend more time with Clown, you realize that the wizard is always trying to figure out the right time for everything. And I respect him for that, man — that's the artist in him. Honestly, he's been our secret weapon since Day One. The reason that everything sounds as interesting as it does, looks as cool — all of the artwork — is all because of him. And I don't think anybody in the band really gives him enough credit. So I'm gonna do my very best to make sure that he gets all that credit. For him, this Look Outside Your Window album was really his baby. He spent a lot of time and he put a lot of emotion into that album. And it'll be really cool to see people finally get to hear it."
